Folks on Ozempic for weight reduction say they're pooping their pants and the mattress

• For some individuals, the favored weight-loss medication Ozempic and Wegovy can include debilitating digestive unwanted side effects.  
• One lady mentioned she joined the “shit the mattress membership” on Wegovy. Others have shared related tales on social media.
• A physician mentioned the drug can result in “overflow diarrhea,” or when liquid stool leaks round a blockage. 

Angela Adams hadn’t pooped for per week, and she or he was getting determined.

The 47-year-old nurse in Florida had been on the favored weight-loss drug Wegovy for a few month — and preventing considered one of its unwanted side effects, constipation, for simply as lengthy. 

However this time, in March, was the worst. “It obtained to the purpose the place it was type of scary,” Adams advised Insider. “My abdomen was hurting, I used to be in ache.” 

She tried a stool softener. Then MiraLAX. Then prunes and a “megadose” of Milk of Magnesia. “You simply attempt to hit it from the highest and hit from the underside, and that is when you find yourself getting in bother: In some unspecified time in the future, it is gonna come out, and you do not have lot alternative as to when it does,” Adams mentioned. 

Therefore her induction into the “shit the mattress membership,” a not-particularly-exclusive society begrudgingly named by some takers of semaglutide, the generic identify for weight-loss drug Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. 

Adams is not alone in her digestive misery. On social media, some semaglutide customers have discovered solace by swapping embarrassing moments anonymously. One Reddit thread for individuals on semaglutide is tactfully titled “sleep shits.”

“I fairly actually shit myself whereas sleeping,” the nameless poster wrote. “That is a primary. Been robust few days of diarrhea after my first semaglutide injection.”

It is peppered with feedback like “you are not alone” and “that would have been me.”

One other Reddit thread particulars one man’s incapacity to suppress a sudden urge to go. “I simply really feel SO embarrassed being a grown grownup who messed his pants!” he wrote. 

In response to Wegovy’s prescribing info, scientific trials have proven that 30% of sufferers expertise diarrhea on the drug (in comparison with 16% of individuals on a placebo) and 24% expertise constipation (in comparison with 11% on placebo). The most typical aspect impact of the drug is nausea, which 44% of individuals in scientific trials skilled (many sufferers on social media have complained of bouts of intense vomiting as properly).

Ozempic, which is accepted in a decrease dose for diabetes and can be used off-label for weight-loss, additionally lists constipation and diarrhea as frequent unwanted side effects.  

Dr. Eric Goldstein, a gastroenterologist in New York Metropolis, advised Insider that whereas digestive points are recognized unwanted side effects of this class of medication, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, how widespread and extreme they’re is probably going overblown on social media. 

“What this illustrates is any remedy, even when used appropriately, could produce other modifications or unwanted side effects that should be monitored by the affected person and the physician,” he mentioned. 

Constipation, diarrhea, and nothing in between 

Semaglutide works partly by slowing digestion and suppressing urge for food, so it is smart it will sluggish elimination, too. When not a lot goes in, not a lot comes out. 

Plus, nausea is a standard aspect impact that makes high-fiber meals unpalatable. And too little fiber can equal too little motion, Goldstein mentioned. 

However some customers report swinging between each extremes. As one particular person wrote in a non-public Fb group for Wegovy customers, they both “cannot poop for days” or “cannot go away the home in concern of actually pooping my pants.” 

“Similar woman, identical,” respondents consoled. 

Goldstein mentioned there are two possible causes. The primary, as Adams’ skilled, is the “dam breaking phenomenon, which is what you’d count on from taking a ton of laxatives,” Goldstein mentioned. 

The second is known as “overflow” or “paradoxical” diarrhea, or once you’re constipated however liquid stool seeps out across the blockage. 

The options, Goldstein mentioned, are not any totally different than options to constipation from different causes: Monitor your bowel actions, speak to your physician about modifications or ache, and attempt to get forward of the issue with drugs or life-style and food plan modifications. 

And, if the unwanted side effects are so debilitating, take into account whether or not the advantages of the drug are well worth the tradeoff. “Ozempic for the appropriate particular person for the appropriate purpose is usually well-tolerated,” Goldstein mentioned. 

Adams is starting to assume she’s the mistaken particular person. She’s been caught at an 18-pound weight reduction for over a month, regardless of a aim of nearer to 50. She has additionally skilled relentless fatigue whereas on the drug, she advised Insider. She’s too drained to do her greatest work on the weekdays, and too drained to do something however sleep on the weekends. Her boss and boyfriend need the outdated Angela again. 

But it surely’s the gastrointestinal points that may do her in. “I want I used to be a kind of who may simply may take it and say, ‘Have a look at all the load I’ve misplaced and I really feel nice!’ however it’s simply not the case,” she mentioned. “I am leaning so closely towards not doing one other injection.” 

Have you ever had a foul expertise on semaglutide, Ozempic, or Wegovy, or remorse taking the drug for any purpose? Attain out to our reporter at [email protected]